


Names (and How They Shape Us)

by Turtlephant



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Anakin's fall, F/M, Mentions of Prostitution, Names, Slavery, Tatooine (Star Wars), Tatooine Slave Culture, list story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 11:03:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20208694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turtlephant/pseuds/Turtlephant
Summary: Anakin Skywalker has had many names over his lifetime. This is his story, told through his names.





	Names (and How They Shape Us)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Shape-Changer](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4678835) by [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril/pseuds/Fialleril). 

Anakin has had many names. 

**1\. Anakin.**

An Amatakka name, _ rain-giver, freedom-bringer, _a legacy to live up to. Once, he asks his mother why she named him Anakin.

Her smile is tired and worn, but genuine. “Because, my son,” she answers him, “the desert told me to.”

Anakin has heard the story of his conception; his mother had been out in the desert during a sandstorm. The desert spoke to her, asking her if she was ready. She had said yes, and been given Anakin.

Anakin had never heard that the desert told his mother his name.

But, years later, he uses his legacy name to introduce himself to an angel.

**2\. Ani.**

A nickname, one devoid of the legacy and expectations _ Anakin _holds. His mother uses it both in fondness and scolding. 

Kitster uses it always, never calling him Anakin. 

Watto—on the few occasions he addresses Anakin as anything other than _ boy— _says it angrily. Watto is often angry.

The angel calls him Ani, too. 

So does the tall man who wants to free Anakin. It doesn’t sound right when the tall man says it.

**3\. Boy.**

Watto calls him this. Anakin thinks Gardulla did too, but he was awfully young then. Young, but never innocent. 

**4\. Skywalker.**

Another legacy, the one of Ekkreth the Trickster. The Slave who made free. Anakin wants to. Oh, how he wants to free all the slaves of Tatooine, but how can he break the shackles of others when his wrists are still tied?

**5\. Padawan Skywalker.**

Anakin does not understand the Jedi. They say they serve justice, but they didn’t free his mother. They address each other as _ Master, _and expect Anakin to do so as well, but they say he is free. 

It leaves a bitter taste on his tongue. 

As time goes on, Anakin finds it is easier to be a Padawan than a slave in some respects—he has the authority of a Jedi, he can help people when Obi-Wan isn’t looking. He slips the girls in the brothels on the lower levels some of his credits and helps them get out. He feels a little more like Ekkreth. 

He grows older and more jaded, angrier. He sees the angel again and she calls him an old name he hasn’t heard in years. It doesn’t fit him anymore. 

He has dreams about his mother dying and they come true. She calls him by the old name, also. It doesn’t sound any better on her lips. 

He goes to save his Master, because Obi-Wan doesn’t know he is a depur, and tries to be kind. 

Anakin and his angel end up in an arena. She says she loves him. He loves her, too. She is free, Unfettered like Leia, the Great Dragon. She has fire in her soul, passion for justice, and she will not force him to do things for her. She _ asks. _

\--SW--

The unfettered angel falls, but he can’t save her. His depur says he must go fight. 

He loses his arm. 

He marries the angel.

The war begins. 

**6\. General Skywalker.**

War breaks out in earnest. He is given men to command, men with no names, only slave numbers. 

They have made him a depur. He wants to vomit. 

He tells them he won’t command numbers, only men. He wants to tell them they aren’t slaves, but that isn’t true. He is a slave too. 

They die in droves and he is given new ones, as if he is commanding droids instead of people. 

_ Skywalker, _ the desert whispers in his mind. _ Remember your name. _

He fails.

**7\. Master Skywalker.**

She’s so young. Her blue eyes are wide, innocent like his never were. She calls him Master for the first time and he wants to scream. 

_ No! I am not depur, I am not Keekta-du, I am Skywalker, child of Ekkreth! _

He screams and he burns and he refuses to act like a depur. She is his sister, not his slave.

The war goes on and her eyes harden into something similar to his own. Anakin will never forgive the Council for Zygerria. All he could do was tell Ahsoka how to survive. 

His remembrance cord grows longer as he loses more people he cares about. 

Then she leaves. 

His emotions are all muddled and confused, but he thinks he is at least a little happy. She is free. The depur can no longer touch her. 

But neither can he. 

She calls him his true name before she leaves. 

**8\. Lord Vader.**

He dreams of his angel dying in childbirth. He doesn’t know what happens to his children. 

He knows that he _ has _to save Padme. She is the only one who treats him like he is free. Like there is no question that he can make choices. 

He needs to save her, needs to, needs, needs, _ needs— _

_ Have you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? _

Anakin understands. He will trade one depur for another, but this one will save his wife.

—SW—

He stops Windu from killing his new Depur, watches Palpatine toss the other man out the window, then kneels.

He rises as Darth Vader.

He follows his Depur’s instructions, leading the clones on Operation Knightfall. 

The Jedi die. 

Their slavery ends. 

If most of the younglings escape, his depur will never know. Footage can be edited. The children never knew freedom. Now they will. 

_ Skywalker… _whispers the desert in his mind, barely audible over the raging storm of his anger. 

—SW—

He slaughters the Separatists on Mustafar and feels no regret. They deserved it; many of them were slavers, and all of them had committed war crimes. 

But then his angel is there, begging him to come back, come home.  
He isn’t sure what spews out of his mouth, but he thinks he conveys that he needs to save her, save their children, that Palpatine can save her.

Then Obi-Wan is there, his first Jedi depur, and his anger rises like a sandstorm. Before he can think, the Force reacts to his storm and Padme chokes. She falls. 

He fights Obi-Wan. He hears Obi-Wan tell him the Chancellor is evil. Anakin knows that. The Chancellor is depur. So he yells back that the Jedi were depur, too. 

Obi-Wan yells that he is lost. Anakin thinks he was never found. That he doesn’t even know who he truly is, other than a slave who has had so many different masters. A slave who was supposed to free all the others, but never did. 

He jumps at Obi-Wan and then there is _ pain _ and only _ pain. _

Obi-Wan is saying something, screaming something, but Anakin can’t hear it. He is _ burning. _

_ I hate you! _He yells. He isn’t sure who he is saying it too. Obi-Wan; Palpatine; the Force; Ar-Amu, who was supposed to protect him; himself. 

He awakes at some point later in a grey room. Everything still hurts, but he is no longer burning. 

He asks after Padme. 

She’s dead. 

He screams. 

—SW—

He’s brutal. He’s a depur (except when he isn’t. He has to start a new remembrance cord because his old one burned). 

The Empire endorses slavery. Vader hates it, the sparks of Anakin Skywalker protesting against it. 

He kills and kills and kills and does what his Master says. 

Nothing eases the ache in his heart. 

He kills Obi-Wan on the Death Star, but feel no satisfaction. There is only a broken sense of loss. 

The desert weeps. 

—SW—

He realizes he has a son and his hollow heart fills some. He can’t fight back, but when his son drops down the shaft, Vader doesn’t grab him with the Force. 

_ Let him be free, _says the desert. 

He listens. 

—SW— 

The next time he sees his son, he is forced to bring him before his depur. He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want his son, his son whose name means _ free, _to be a slave. He has no choice. 

There is a fight and he learns he has a _ daughter _ (he and Padme were both right) and he provokes Luke and loses his hand _ again. _

Then his son tosses his lightsaber away, standing proud before the Emperor, standing free.  
Then he is screaming, wreathed in purple flame. He cries for father and takes Vader a moment to process that that means _him. _

Anakin Skywalker, the child of Ekkreth, the one who makes free and brings the rain, screams and tosses his depur down a reactor shaft. 

Then he falls. 

**9\. Anakin Skywalker (reprise).**

Luke takes his mask off at his request. The red lifts and Anakin sees eyes as blue as the desert sky and hair the color of sand. This is a child of the desert, just as Anakin was all those years ago.

Images flash before Anakin’s eyes; a young woman who looks similar to Padme; Luke growing up with Beru and Owen; Padme, smiling at him, hand outstretched. 

“Tell your sister you were right…” Anakin rasps, staring into his son’s eyes. 

His vision dims and he knows that he is done. 

Anakin Skywalker takes his last breath, then floats into the Force to find his loved ones. 

His mother and wife are waiting for him. 

He is free. 


End file.
